MBA for Veterans

An Unparalleled Connection

Veterans own nine percent of all businesses nationwide and employ 5.8 million people. According to research by the Small Business Administration, veterans are twice as likely as non-veterans to pursue business ownership, and the five-year success rate of veteran-owned businesses significantly surpasses the national average.

Why is this? Military training develops many of the skills and traits that translate to successful entrepreneurship. These include comfort with autonomy and uncertainty, self-efficiency, ambition, a desire for achievement and effective decision-making. The strong correlation between military service and entrepreneurial success, coupled with Syracuse University’s unparalleled history of support and programs for veterans, makes the MBA one of the university’s featured degrees for former members of our nation’s military.

Students admitted to the MBA for Veterans program take classes in a specialized, accelerated cohort of students from all backgrounds—both military (veteran and active duty) and non-military. The diversity of experiences in our classrooms greatly contributes to the quality of your educational experience. The considerations we have made for those who have served do not isolate student veterans from our rich academic community in any way.

An In-Depth Educational Experience

The Whitman School of Management's accelerated MBA for Veterans program consists of 54 credits taken over a 14-month period. The program offers in-depth courses in entrepreneurship with an emphasis on leadership and innovation. Courses include entrepreneurship, market research and analysis, economics, data analysis, management information systems, financial accounting, marketing management, supply chain/project management, operations management, activity based costing/management accounting, business strategy and human capital management. Graduates are awarded an MBA degree with a concentration in entrepreneurship. The program begins in late May and each class includes approximately 30 to 35 participants. Students will first take part in an orientation to learn about the academic environment at Syracuse University and the resources available for student veterans.

The Academic Community

The quality of an academic program is largely dependent on its faculty. Our faculty is a talented and accomplished group of scholars who represent a broad range of academic and practical experience. Complementing the members of the faculty who teach the traditional management fields of accounting, finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, public administration and quantitative methods are lawyers, economists and individual/organizational behaviorists. Syracuse University is ranked number one in the state of New York for veteran enrollment and 17th nationally. The U.S. News and World Report includes Syracuse among the best colleges for veterans in the country.

Syracuse is also home to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities Consortium, a partnership with seven other schools that has provided intensive training to hundreds of veterans across the country to help bring great business ideas to fruition. The commitment to student veterans and the long history of institutional support at Syracuse University are unequaled. The MBA for Veterans continues to advance this mission. Syracuse University is a private, coeducational and residential university. Its main campus enrollment of 12,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students represents the 50 states, nearly 90 foreign countries and varied economic and social backgrounds. The university's mission is to promote learning through teaching, research, scholarship, creative accomplishment and service.

Academic Policies

The university uses an A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C- and F grading system for the MBA program. All MBA candidates must maintain a B grade average (3.0). If the average falls below a B, students will be placed on academic probation and granted one semester to return to good standing. Students who fail to return to good standing after one semester probation are subject to dismissal from the program. Applicants without an academic background in mathematics (advanced algebra and calculus), statistics or accounting, are strongly encouraged to attend undergraduate courses in these subjects prior to application/attendance.

More Information

Questions concerning the MBA for veterans, Syracuse University, and the Syracuse area should be referred to: